In April we completed the solar panel cleaning on a Shropshire solar farm. The 50 KW solar farm is made up of 178 solar panels located on the roof of a grain dryer near Broseley. The solar panels were installed and are monitored by Chesire-based The Green Electrician.
The site is owned by Willey estates and is part of their drive to ‘go green’. We were able to complete the solar panel cleaning by using a Claas Telehandler that is owned by the Estate in conjunction with our equipment and know-how. This saved them around £350.00 in cherry picker hire costs. We are happy to use access machinery owned by farmers to clean the solar panels on top of farm buildings.
Because of the rural location of the solar farm, the solar panels were covered in a film of dust from the plowing in the local fields and other farm activity which kicks up dust on to the solar panels. This film of dust was undoubtedly affecting the output of the solar array. The Estate realised this and could understand why they had to get their solar panel cleaned in order to get them running at a greater efficiency. We would expect them to see at least a 15% increase in electricity generation, but it will probably be nearer 20%.
